PSG involved in another judicial problem

PARIS-. The prosecutor’s office of Paris is investigating alleged acts of discrimination from years ago by the Paris Saint-Germain. This after the French Human Rights League filed a complaint claiming that viewers of the PSG They illegally labeled potential recruits based on their origin.

Prosecutors told The Associated Press they reopened the investigation in May. The case is related to events that happened several years ago and was part of an initial investigation that concluded in August 2022. The Human Rights League confirmed to the AP that it filed the lawsuit.

The prosecutor’s office indicated that it received the complaint “for discrimination based on origin and that it had computerized information stored revealing racial and ethnic origins.”

French laws prohibit the collection of personal information showing racial and ethnic origins of individuals.

He PSG previously acknowledged that they used forms with illegal content between 2013 and 2018. But it declined responsibility for implementing the policy after news site Mediapart reported that the team asked its viewers to mention the origin of potential recruits in four categories: “Francais” (French), “Maghrebin” (North African), “Antillais” (Antillean), and “Afrique noire” (Black African).

The previous investigation began after the Human Rights League filed a complaint following an internal PSG investigation that determined that “there was no proven cause of discrimination.”

The ethics board of the French Football Federation also investigated the situation and the disciplinary commission fined PSG 100,000 euros ($109,000).

The league also awarded a suspended €10,000 fine to former PSG academy director Bertrand Reuzeau. While Marc Westerloppe and Pierre Reynaud, who were in charge of recruiting the team, received suspended fines of 5,000 euros.

Mediapart and the television program “Envoyé Special” indicated that young black players were overlooked, Mediapart assured that midfielder Yann Gboho, 17 years old and who played with France in the U-18, was ignored by PSG when He was 13 years old and the club leadership decided to cover up “those involved in the scandal.”

In another case of racism in 2011, French football was affected by other strong revelations from Mediapart, which claimed that then-coach Laurent Blanc and others informally discussed quotas to limit the number of black and Arab youth players involved. in selection.